Veritas
by liketolaugh
Summary: In the end, it's ghost hunters who end Danny Phantom. (Danny's death, and then the things that come after.)
1. Danny

**A/N: Hi, guys! *wave* So I know I don't normally write for Danny Phantom, but I got a request so I made a special exception. *grin* It was a request for a sad Danny Phantom oneshot, which isn't easy, but hey. Challenges are good.**

 **Title: Veritas**

 **Author: liketolaugh**

 **Rating: T**

 **Pairings: None**

 **Genre: Tragedy/Angst**

 **Warnings: Character death**

 **Summary: In the end, it's ghost hunters who end Danny Phantom. (Danny's death, and then the things that come after.)  
**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor do I want to. If I owned it, I'd have to take responsibility for the monstrosity that is Phantom Planet.**

* * *

Danny was panting.

He wasn't often out of breath when he was in ghost form - he didn't need nearly as much then - but this time, he was being pushed to his limits. Rain pounded against his back, soaking his jumpsuit and hair and rendering the world dark and murky, and sweat trickled into his eyes, making him blink and squint. Blood and ectoplasm dripped out from under his hand, where it was plastered to his side, and was washed away by the rain.

It hurt.

"You can't run forever, Phantom!"

Danny gritted his teeth and banked to one side, and Valerie's shot just missed him, leaving a scorch mark on the pavement far below.

"Watch me!" he shot back, and swerved to try and lose her in a maze of buildings.

No luck, of course - she could swerve very nearly as well as he could, but at least it had put his parents some ways behind, even if it didn't delay the Guys in White any - they were everywhere. He closed his eyes briefly, gritting his teeth.

Why was this happening?

Another shot sent him crashing to the ground, and he felt a fresh splash of water soak his jumpsuit further, sopping wet. He rolled over, pushed himself up, and set off on a staggering flight path back into the air.

"Not this time, ghost boy!"

 _When did Mom and Dad catch up?_ Danny wondered frantically, trying to make himself go faster, fly faster, but he was too tired, he ached. He let go of his wound and blindly shot a weak ectoblast backwards, hoping to blow out a tire. No luck.

It was _never_ this hard to get away. Fear burned in his chest, and he wondered, half-panicked, if he could stop his parents, if they decided to take his ghost form out for good. If he'd be fast enough.

"Stop!" he screamed, or he thought he did, but it was hard to think. He was so tired.

"Freeze, Danny Phantom."

Normally, Danny found the droning, interchangeable voices of the Guys in White to be funny, but normally, there weren't so many of them, and normally, they weren't working with his parents and Valerie.

Normally, they didn't come this close to catching him. It wasn't funny anymore.

He forced a smirk. _I'm fine,_ he reminded himself. _I'm fine. They haven't caught me yet. This is just a bad day. Just another really bad day, and later, I can laugh about it with Sam and Tucker and Jazz can scold me for being reckless…_

 _Please, let us laugh about this later._

"Ca…" Danny coughed and his flight path stuttered again. He felt a sharp pain in his neck, but ignored it. He tried again. "Can't catch what you can't see!"

He tried not to resort to this, because he knew that they had ways around it and they would make them better if he made it a go-to, but he turned invisible and intangible and tried to phase through a building he was passing by.

He failed - banged off the wall like he was still solid, _because he was._

That was bad. That was really, really, really-

"What the-"

"Nice try, ghost!" Jack's voice was unnervingly triumphant. "But now that serum's in you, you aren't going anywhere!"

Serum?

Dazedly, Danny reached up, and his fingers brushed against a dart in his neck. His eyes widened and he pulled it out, but it was too late.

 _It's fine,_ he insisted to himself, breathing too fast. _I can get out of this. I can still get out of this. I always do._

"You're going down this time, Phantom!"

That was Valerie again, and he was too slow to avoid another shot that bounced him painfully off the wall, and he fell to the ground.

Danny's eyes were wide and darting, and he felt frozen. Rain pounded down from above, and he could hear the Guys in White closing in from their various locations. But it was his parents and Valerie who really worried him. To the Guys in White, this was just a job, but those three really _hated_ ghosts.

He was so tired, but he had to get up. He had to get away.

"Y-you don't know what you're doing," he snapped weakly, pushing himself up and- ow. He almost fell back down as pain shot through his back and side. He'd pay for this later.

He couldn't see his mother's expression, not through the haz-mat suit, but he could imagine it well enough. He knew how she felt about his ghost form. "We know _exactly_ what we're doing, ghost."

"Surrender!" The Guys in White again, cordoning off the area. Mentally, he cursed them; if there weren't so damned _many_ of them here, he'd have been able to get away.

No. No, he could still get away. He took off, dizzy and shaking, but it didn't matter.

A gun fired; Danny thought it was from one of the Guys in White. He fell and didn't get up again.

It was at about that moment that Danny realized that he wasn't going to get away this time.

Panic got him to open his eyes, but that was all it got him, and he stared around him - the vans of the Guys in White, his parents pulling up and scrambling out of the RV, Valerie cautiously drawing closer far above - with dazed, dimming green eyes.

This was it. This was it, this was it, this was-

"We've got him," the Guys in White reported unnecessarily.

Danny was lying on his stomach, head tipped back and eyes shining with fear. He looked from Valerie, changing the settings on her gun, to his parents, just a few feet away. He opened his mouth and tried to speak. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean- Please-_

Valerie pointed her gun at him, calm and deliberate. There was a whine as it charged. Cold flooded Danny's system and he froze, eyes widening, like a deer in the headlights.

 _No!_

She fired.

He was thrown, _again,_ against the wall, and suddenly it didn't hurt anymore, it just felt cold, and wet, and his eyes were wide and he looked down and-

There was a hole in him. There was a large, ragged, burned hole in him, and it didn't hurt, it just felt cold, and it was hard to think and he knew this was bad but he couldn't think of why.

"We did it!" Jack cheered, and Maddie chuckled a little at his enthusiasm, and Danny stared in confusion at the ragged hole in his stomach.

"Let's see you terrorize the town now, ghost," Valerie said smugly.

His vision fogged. His head dropped down. His eyes closed, and his chest rose and fell raggedly.

Danny felt tired. Was it okay to go to sleep?

Wait, no, he wasn't home. He had to get home first. He opened his eyes and tried to push himself up, but his arms felt like lead, and he couldn't even lift his head. That didn't seem right.

"...He's taking an awful long time to dissipate," Maddie murmured.

Warmth rushed over him for a split second before the cold returned, and he felt cold rainwater under his cheek. Black hair fell in front of his eyes and stuck to his face. He couldn't hear anything except the pounding of the rain, and even that was distant.

 _I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. I don't think I'll make it home tonight._

 _Sorry, Jazz. I know I promised I'd check in with you once I was done with my patrol._

 _Sorry, Sam, Tucker. It's Friday. We were going to have a movie night tonight._

"...Danny?"

Footsteps.

"Oh my God, Danny!"

Clatter. Hands under his back and head, lifting him off the wet ground.

"Mads, we need to stop the bleeding!"

"Jack-"

 _"We need to stop the bleeding!"_

He opened his eyes - when had he closed them? His mother was staring at him with wide, horrified eyes, guilty and tortured. That wasn't right. She looked so upset.

"Mom?" he managed, voice thin and soft.

"I'm right here, Danny, stay with us," she said quickly, almost too quickly for his mind to process. He forced a smirk.

"'M not going anywhere," he mumbled. He couldn't move, so that would be kind of hard. And then, returning to his previous train of thought, "Sorry."

His father was there, too, hands doing something out of Danny's sight - his range of vision was strangely limited right now. He frowned and tried to look down again, but Maddie stopped him.

"Don't look, Danny. We'll fix this. Oh, God, Danny, why didn't you say anything?"

He blinked at her. His mind was moving too slowly. What didn't he tell her?

Well, a lot of things. But what was she upset about? What had he done this time?

There was Valerie, in her Red Huntress suit, standing behind Maddie with her hand over her mouth. As he watched, she crumpled to the ground, and he tried to get up, worried.

Maddie pressed him down and he frowned.

"Don't move," Maddie told him, voice cracking. She sounded like she was going to cry. He felt guilty, but he also felt really, really tired… His eyes slid shut.

He'd only be asleep for a bit. Then he could get to all of those things he'd promised he'd do.

He'd only sleep for a bit.

"Danny! Danny, wake up!"

 _Sorry, Mom._

* * *

 **So this part is a bit short, but the next two should be longer. I'm planning to update next Saturday, and then the one after, in keeping with my normal update habits and because I have a busy weekend ahead. *apologetic smile* Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	2. The Humans

**A/N: Hey. *nod* This took longer than expected, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Very different from writing oneshots of a similar nature for DGM, though... *muse* Bad things like this just don't happen in Danny Phantom, so they're not prepared. On the other hand, in the Order, it's more of a surprise for awful things _not_ to happen.**

 **Thank you to RMStudio, Lol, Kit, Invader Johnny, person, Kiri Kaitou Clover, xelano123, and guest for reviewing!**

 **Title: Veritas**

 **Author: liketolaugh**

 **Rating: T**

 **Pairings: None**

 **Genre: Tragedy/Angst**

 **Warnings: Character death**

 **Summary: In the end, it's ghost hunters who end Danny Phantom. (Danny's death, and then the things that come after.)  
**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor do I want to. If I owned it, I'd have to take responsibility for the monstrosity that is Phantom Planet.**

* * *

Jazz got the call at eleven at night.

 _"J-Jazz, your brother's i-in the ho-hospital. We… we need to… to tell you something."_

Her mother's stuttered speech had lit a panic in her like nothing else, but before she could ask any questions she'd hung up. Five minutes later, she was driving to the hospital as fast as she could, praying to God that she was wrong.

Please, let her be wrong.

She got to the hospital in record time (and possibly ran a few red lights) and barely remembered to turn her car off before she stumbled out of it.

Inside the waiting room, Jack had one arm around Maddie, but he looked to be the one closer to tears. Both of them were deathly pale and shaking, and she could swear her heartbeat stuttered.

"Is he okay?" were the first words out of her mouth when she reached them. Her flying orange hair was a mess and her clothes mismatched, with pajama pants and a day shirt she'd hastily thrown on.

Maddie's head jerked up, and she flinched as if from a blow. Jazz faltered.

"He's gone, Jazz," she whispered. Her voice cracked. "I'm so sorry."

Jazz froze.

 _I'm so sorry._

"You didn't," she whispered, the fears that haunted her on late nights surging up.

 _I'm so sorry._

Jack didn't lift his head, one huge hand covering his face. Maddie's arms were wrapped around herself, leaning into her husband, eyes reddened and swollen and face streaked with tears.

Still, her eyes widened like a deer caught in the headlights. "Jazz. did you… did you know?"

"You killed him," Jazz realized, voice rising and high-pitched, too horrified to process the way the activity in the (regardless mostly empty) waiting room stopped. "You killed Danny!"

Jack's head jerked up, and his eyes were swollen too. "We didn't know, Jazz! Galloping _gargoyles,_ if we'd known… If we'd known _he_ was _Danny Phantom..."_ He swallowed, and his expression was crushed and sickened and Jazz didn't care, she didn't. Every bone in her body was screaming that _they killed Danny, they'd been trying and they finally succeeded!_

"You shouldn't have been trying!" she screamed, tears starting to spill down her face. "We might've done everything we could to keep you from finding out, but Christ, what kind of parents can't tell that their child sneaks off to fight every day? Every _night?"_

Maddie surged up, horror and misery and realization mixing together to create an ugly, hurtful sort of anger. "You did- Were you _covering_ for him, Jasmine? You didn't… you didn't _condone_ this?"

"Of course not!" Jazz snapped, breath hitching. _Oh, God. He's dead. Danny's dead. Mom and Dad killed Danny._ "But he's my little brother and he was _terrified,_ Mom! I wasn't going to break his trust, because I thought you'd _never really kill him!"_

There were murmurs in the background. There were only a few people in the waiting room, one or two or three, but all of them were talking, frozen still and watching them. Jazz didn't care; all of her attention was on Jack and Maddie.

"We were trying," Jack croaked. He might've been up with Maddie, backing her up, but Danny's death seemed to have hollowed all the spirit right out of him for once. "We were always trying."

"He was a hero!" Jazz snapped back, voice cracking horribly. "I thought… I thought you were smart enough to realize that eventually!"

"You could have told us," Maddie hissed, face scrunched with the effort of holding back her tears, fists clenching. "This should never have happened."

A sob ripped free from Jazz's chest. "You're damn right, it shouldn't." She turned to leave, and Maddie reached forward to grab her elbow.

"Where are you going? We're not done here, young lady!"

"I'm going to Sam's," Jazz replied, trying to keep her voice as steady as it was venomous. "Someone needs to tell Danny's friends that he's dead." She hesitated, and then continued, glaring at the ground with her voice twice as heated, "And I'm not coming home tonight. Or tomorrow. I might not come home _ever."_

Maddie's expression fell all over again, crushed as if by the weight of the world. "Jazz…"

"Goodbye, Mom."

She pulled free and headed for the door again, and this time, she was met with no resistance save the sobs of her mother and father.

* * *

By the time Jazz reached Sam's mansion, she was half a step from a breakdown, and when she reached the front door, her face was blotchy and she couldn't stop crying long enough to speak.

 _Danny, I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry…_

The man who answered the door tried to speak to her, but she wasn't listening. Fortunately for her, though, she attracted Sam's attention, and she pushed the butler out of the way to get to Jazz, who felt the arm going around her shoulders and instinctively embraced the other girl, still crying.

"Jazz?" Sam's voice was frantic. "What's wrong? Is it Danny?"

"He's dead, Sam!" Jazz got out, squeezing the younger teen. "Mom and Dad, they-"

"Oh my God," Sam whispered. Jazz felt Sam pull at her, and she went with it, sobs slowing but still in a state of shock. "We need to tell Tucker. And-"

"I know," Jazz whispered, a little calmer now.

In Sam's room, Sam sat Jazz down on her bed and then called Tucker, barely able to keep her voice steady, and then hung up to slump beside Jazz, curling up in a ball and hiding her face in her arms. She didn't cry as loudly as Jazz had, but she was shaking.

Tucker found them like that when he burst in, wide-eyed, hat and glasses lopsided, fifteen minutes later. "It's past midnight, what happened?"

"Danny's parents," Sam croaked, lifting her head. Her makeup was smeared - she hadn't gotten around to taking it off yet - and her voice shaky. "They got him. Tucker, they got him."

Tucker stared for a long moment, uncomprehending. "W-what?"

"Don't make me say it again!" Sam tried to snap, but her voice broke, and she hid it again, shaking worse than ever. "Danny's dead. He's dead and he's not coming back."

Tucker just kept staring, and then he shut the door and fell just barely into a chair, suddenly boneless. "Oh, God," he said weakly, sounding out-of-breath and dizzy. "You're serious."

"This isn't something we could joke about," Jazz whispered. She hadn't looked up when he entered and she didn't look up now. She just stared at the floor, hunched over, Sam's bedsheets fisted in her shaking hands, and she clutched onto them like a lifeline. "They called me an hour ago and told me Danny was in the hospital, and when I got there…"

She couldn't speak after that, but she didn't need to. Tucker collapsed backward, eyes squeezed shut.

"Oh, God," he repeated faintly. "Oh, God."

* * *

After Danny's funeral, Sam went into Fentonworks.

It was the only time she could rightly expect the house to be abandoned; the Fentons had been secluding themselves there since Danny's death three days before, but they'd come out for this. Sam hated to leave Jazz with them, but she was confident that the older girl could avoid them if she wanted. And oh, did she want to.

Jazz had been staying with Sam for the past few days, unable to face her parents, and Sam couldn't blame her. Coming out was hard; Jazz hadn't, yet, but Sam and Tucker had, and they'd been pelted with questions from all angles until Sam blew up at one frightened, inquisitive boy.

Because everyone in the town suddenly knew, they knew about Danny and knew what happened, and they wanted to know more, and Sam _couldn't take it._

They had no right.

Sam went straight into the basement and stared hatefully at the portal for a very long time. If this portal didn't exist, none of this would have happened. Danny wouldn't have had to fight. He wouldn't have spent the past few years hiding. He wouldn't be _dead._

"I hate you," she hissed, and her fist clenched around the ring in her hand. Her voice rose. "I hate you, Danny! Why did you have to be the hero? Why couldn't you tell your parents, or run away? Why did you have to _die,_ you idiot? Don't you know we still need you?" Her voice cracked. "Don't you know _I_ still need you?"

She waited. There was no answer; Danny probably wasn't in the Ghost Zone. She wasn't that lucky.

After a moment, her expression twisted, and she drew her arm back and, as hard as she could, she threw the ring - the old promise ring Danny had asked her to hold - into the Ghost Zone.

"Take it!" she screamed. Her eyes burned with the threat of tears, but she _refused_ to cry. Her pride wouldn't let her. "Take it, you bastard! And don't you dare forget!"

* * *

It was Tucker who thought of calling Vlad, a week after Danny's funeral. Say what you would about Vlad's methods - and Tucker _did_ have quite a lot to say about his methods - but Vlad had always cared about Danny.

Tucker pulled his phone out and tapped in Vlad's number, and, seconds later, Vlad growled into the phone, "How did you get this number?"

"Dude, you programmed it into my best friend's phone," Tucker sniped back. Several times, actually, since Danny kept deleting it. "It was kind of hard not to."

Vlad was silent for a long time. "What do you want?" he finally asked grudgingly.

"Look." Tucker sighed and leaned back against the wall, feeling tired. He'd always felt tired lately. Things just… weren't the same without Danny. "I hate talking to you as much as you hate talking to me, so I'll make this short, alright?"

"Then _do so,"_ Vlad gritted out.

"Danny's dead."

It was like a blow to his chest, every time he said it aloud. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, fist clenching. Vlad was again silent.

"What?" Vlad asked at last.

"He's dead," Tucker repeated, strained and frustrated. "He's gone. How many ways do you want me to say it?"

Silence.

"This isn't funny," Vlad said, but his voice was sort of strangled and breathless where it wasn't enraged. This far away, Tucker wasn't worried.

Much.

"No," Tucker agreed. "It's really not." He paused, but Vlad didn't seem ready to speak. So he continued. "Look, I don't really like you, and Danny didn't like you, but I know you cared about him, alright? So I thought you should know. And you missed the funeral, by the way. It was pretty big." Since his identity had been exposed right after his death. It had been hard for all of them; Sam had left early.

More silence. And then Vlad hung up.

Tucker couldn't even bring himself to care. He just sighed and slumped a little further against the wall. "You're welcome," he said to the air.

* * *

As it turned out, Vlad took Tucker's words very much seriously, and he flew straight out to Amity.

He didn't stay for very long.

Tucker wasn't there for the fight itself, but Sam was. Jazz wasn't - she was still staying with Sam.

"He didn't reveal his own secret, but it was a close thing," Sam told them. "He called them irresponsible and terrible and so on- And he's not wrong," she added with a scowl. "I thought Mr. Fenton was gonna cry, he looked so awful." She shrugged, scowling at the ground. "And he looked like he'd been crying, too - Vlad did, I mean. He's really cut up."

Jazz sighed. "He texted me," she said suddenly. "Offered to let me stay, and pay for my college to boot."

"Are you gonna accept?" Tucker asked her, hardly able to believe he was even considering it.

Jazz just shrugged, dipping her head so they couldn't see her eyes.

"But that wasn't the most important thing," Sam said suddenly, drawing both their attention. "I think… I think the Fentons are going to go back into ghost hunting."

Jazz's head jerked up, eyes going wide. "They wouldn't."

"They would," Sam said with a scowl. Then she slumped abruptly and sighed. "But I can… See where they're coming from. We can't keep the ghosts back ourselves, and… It's what Danny would have wanted."

The last sentence cast a silence over the small group, and then Tucker nodded.

"Yeah," he muttered. "I guess he would have."

* * *

The weirdest thing, Sam thought, was the effect the revelation and Danny's death had on the population of Casper High.

All of them were walking on eggshells around Sam and Tucker. And with how fragile Sam suddenly felt, how close to screaming or to tears, she couldn't really blame them, though she wished they would stop. She just wanted to forget it.

She wondered if her parents would consider moving.

The Guys in White weren't in town anymore; they'd left, suddenly and mysteriously. Dash had apologized to Sam and Tucker - Tucker told him to forget it, it didn't matter anymore. Sam agreed.

Dash hadn't approached them since.

Valerie hadn't come back to school yet, Sam saw Paulina crying by herself several times, Kwan was wondering around sort of lost…

"Ms. Manson," Lancer called out, voice soft like he thought she'd break. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to refocus.

"Sorry," she muttered.

Lancer just nodded at her, eyes solemn, and turned back to the board. Without looking at them, he added, "I'd like to speak to you and Mr. Foley after class."

Sam nodded, not really caring that he couldn't see her, and he seemed to accept her lack of an answer, continuing with the lesson.

After class, Sam and Tucker both went up to Mr. Lancer, who fisted his hands on his desk and took a deep breath.

"Mr. Foley… Ms. Manson… About Mr. Fenton." He trailed off, and Tucker crossed his arms, turning his head away. Eventually, though, he prompted,

"What about him?"

Sam crossed her arms, but it ended up more like she was hugging herself and she didn't even care. She clenched her jaw and focused on not crying. It was harder than it should have been. She wasn't this weak.

Lancer stared at them, and for a few minutes, he opened and closed his mouth, making several false starts before he finally sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing. I apologize for taking up your time." He pulled over a couple and late passes and filled them out silently. "Have a good day, Mr. Foley, Ms. Manson."

"Yeah," Sam said acerbically, even knowing it wasn't Mr. Lancer's fault. "We'll have a real good day."

* * *

 **So I hope that this seemed in character and believable... Like I said, it's been a while, and never this intense. *smile* Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	3. The Ghosts

**A/N: Well, I have to admit, I'm kind of relieved to be done with this. *rubs back of neck sheepishly* I left the DP fandom for a reason...**

 **Thank you to FowlFanKid13, Invader Johnny, RMXStudio, Vin, PotterBlackRemus13, xelano123, lexi1220, and ttme123 for reviewing!**

 **Title: Veritas**

 **Author: liketolaugh**

 **Rating: T**

 **Pairings: None**

 **Genre: Tragedy/Angst**

 **Warnings: Character death**

 **Summary: In the end, it's ghost hunters who end Danny Phantom. (Danny's death, and then the things that come after.)  
**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor do I want to. If I owned it, I'd have to take responsibility for the monstrosity that is Phantom Planet.**

* * *

The longest dry spell since the portal opened, and of course Danny wasn't here to see it.

It was a few weeks after Danny's death that the first sentient ghost showed his face in town again, and obviously, it was the Box Ghost. Who the hell else would it be?

The Fentons had indeed gone on to pick up ghost hunting again, but it was slow going, so Sam, Jazz, and Tucker hadn't dropped it yet, keeping up their patrols in the absence of other things to do. (Sam had never realized just how much of her life revolved around Danny.)

It was Sam that the Box Ghost ran into first, which was unfortunate to him, because Sam's temper had been rather short as of late, and she did not have the patience for his shit even on a _good_ day.

"Where is the _ghost child?"_ were the first words out of the Box Ghost's mouth when he saw her, which did not help her mood in the slightest.

"None of your _fucking_ business," Sam snapped, grasping for her ecto-gun, glaring at him. Worse, the Box Ghost, in a way the shapeless ectoplasmic blobs never could have, reminded her of Danny, and it tightened her chest in a way she didn't want to think about.

The Box Ghost huffed, crossing his arms childishly. "No one has seen the _ghost child!_ Why _not?"_

Sam clenched her jaw. _Hold it together, Manson._ "He's dead," she told him harshly, fist so tight around her weapon that it was shaking slightly. "Understand? He's dead and we're _never going to seem him again,_ so let's get this over with so you can _get lost!"_

The Box Ghost, however, didn't seem to have processed most of her words; instead, he was staring at her dumbly, seemingly stuck on one thing. "He's dead? The ghost of the cylindrical container... is _dead?"_

Sam's eyes burned, and she'd never felt so enraged. "Yes, he is!" she spat. "And it's _your_ fault, you and the other ghosts like you!" She stepped toward him, shaking with anger. "If you didn't keep coming here and trying to do _whatever_ it is you're trying to do, he wouldn't have had to keep fighting you off! And if he hadn't had to keep fighting you off, no one would have known about his ghost form, and his _fucking parents_ wouldn't have killed him!"

My the end of her speech, her voice had risen to a near-hysterical scream, and the Box Ghost was just staring at her with wide eyes.

Then, abruptly, he vanished, and she quietly cursed herself and stepped back, scrubbing at her eyes furiously.

She didn't see the Box Ghost again that day.

* * *

Jazz was the first one to see Dani, who practically ran up to her in the middle of the street, tennis shoes clapping against the ground and nearly stumbling in her haste.

She stopped right in front of her, tipping her head back to stare at her, wide-eyed. "Jazz, I heard about- Is it true?"

It took Jazz a moment, but then she understood, and tears pricked at her eyes. "Yeah," she said softly, head dropping, fingers tightening around her book. "Yeah, it- Yeah."

Dani's eyes widened, her hand clapping over her mouth. "Oh my God," she breathed, eyes horrified and crushed and ridiculously like Danny's when he was this upset. "I can't believe-"

"I know," Jazz agreed in a tight, low voice that was all she could force from her chest.

"How…?" Dani was still just staring, clearly in shock, and starting to shake slightly.

"Mom and Dad," Jazz forced out, anger burning her throat like it always did when she thought about them lately. "They know now, but they… they didn't then."

"Oh," Dani said in a small voice. Then she shook herself, visibly forced herself to perk up (which hurt just to watch) and said bravely, "I… I thought you might need help. With the ghost hunting. Since…"

This, too, took Jazz a moment to process, but then she nodded, taking a deep breath. If Dani could handle this, then so could she. "Yeah. You're right. Thanks, D-Dani."

* * *

Dani ended up staying with Sam as well, and Jazz thought the only reason her parents didn't protest was the stern looks Sam's grandmother gave them every so often, which seemed to curb their tongues.

Dani wasn't quite as good as Danny - she usually avoided areas thick with ghosts, for fear of attracting Vlad's attention - but she lifted a lot of the strain off of them.

Jazz had personally made sure, with low words hissed in a tone made of icy steel, that her parents knew not to attack Dani, and when she made sure of that, she spent the first week following the girl around, making sure she could handle it.

Not that she would have been able to do anything about it if she couldn't.

It was hard to shake off the fear, worried as she was that Dani would get herself into trouble while Jazz wasn't looking _(like Danny had,_ her mind whispered) but Dani yelled at her for stalking her, so she had to lay off eventually.

Naturally, it was shortly after that that she ran into Skulker.

Skulker was being unusually quiet, though, half invisible as he poked his head suspiciously around corners, one arm-gun bared and ready to fire. Jazz fingered her ectogun and cleared her throat pointedly, directing it at him. (She never went anywhere without it. Hadn't for a long time.)

It was actually embarrassing, how easily he dismissed her when he finally turned around to look at her. She faltered on seeing his expression - far from the triumph or perverse excitement that usually put a vicious smirk on his mouth, it was pensive and slightly disturbed.

"You're the ghost child's sister, aren't you?" he asked abruptly, tapping his foot impatiently in a surprisingly human gesture.

She took a step back and nodded cautiously, hiding a flinch just at the mention. (She really needed to get over that.)

"Where is he?" Skulker sounded frustrated and, again, a little disturbed. Jazz's grip tightened convulsively.

"Didn't the Box Ghost spread the word?" Jazz asked bitterly, with a hitch in her voice she couldn't control. She put the gun down, since Skulker didn't seem like he was about to attack. "He's dead. Mom and Dad killed him."

"Impossible." Skulker's voice was stern, cutting across hers like a knife through butter as he scowled at her like she was a disobedient child. "The ghost child cannot have been killed. It cannot be done."

"Obviously it _can,"_ Jazz snapped, barely holding back a sob as tears stung at her eyes. "Look, metal mouth, I really don't have the energy to deal with you right now, and I _definitely_ don't have the strength to argue with you right now. _Danny_ was always the strong one, and he's gone." Then, with uncharacteristic spite, "If you want to ask someone about it, talk to Mom and Dad."

He blinked at her, clearly startled and still frowning, and she glared at him until, abruptly, he winked out of existence.

He never returned.

* * *

After Skulker left, the ghosts started coming back again.

Wulf came and stayed with Tucker for a few days, sniffling sadly and occasionally howling mournfully at the moon. Technus came and flailed around for a bit, yelling about human sentimentality and fragility and seemingly confused by his own listlessness. Unlike the others, he didn't leave on his own; Dani took care of him in the end.

There was Frostbite, who came to offer his condolences with solemn, old eyes, and Cujo, who had come sniffing around Amity Park and hadn't yet left; Sam thought that he was looking for Danny.

Well, he could keep looking. He wasn't going to find him.

The most annoying was Spectra, who had, naturally, come to feed off of everyone's misery, and was doing a frustratingly good job hiding from all the ghost hunters, _especially_ when she didn't need to milk it, really. There was more than enough to go around.

"Hey, babypop!"

Ember's rough voice drew Sam's attention, and she barely had to turn to shoot the flame-haired ghost a venomous glare.

"Yes, Danny's dead, no, that doesn't mean you can haunt Amity," Sam snarled at her, tired of this and of everything and most of all of being _this sad._ "Are we done?"

Ember didn't smirk like Sam expected; instead, she leveled a pitying look at her, and held out one hand. "Found this floating in the Zone. You might not want it back now, babypop, but believe me, you'll want it in a few years."

Sam looked at her suspiciously, and when she made no hostile moves, she hesitantly moved forward to at least see what it was.

It was the ring. The class ring she'd thrown into the portal.

"What," she said flatly.

Ember, satisfied she knew what it was, threw it at her face. "Take it, lady. Trust me, you'd regret throwing it away." She turned and started to walk away as it bounced off Sam's face and the girl absently caught it, frowning at her. "See you around, babypop. I got a sulky boyfriend to look after and a rampaging warden to avoid." She flashed a smirk over her shoulder. "But don't think I won't be back."

Sam stared after her until she was gone, but when she finally was, she bent down to pick it up.

She stared at the ring for a few long moments, and then she shoved it into her pocket.

She had a feeling Ember knew what she was talking about.

* * *

Sam tolerated Spectra's presence for maybe a week before she snapped and went after her with a Fenton Ghost Peeler and a thermos.

It was a vicious beatdown. Tucker sort of really never wanted to see anything like it again. And then she locked Spectra in the thermos and threw her into the river. (No one, as far as Tucker knew, had gone to retrieve her yet. She'd sunk too low.)

Not long after that, Valerie moved away, and then…

Sam had to laugh. She had to laugh or she was going to start screaming and never stop.

She never thought she'd be sorry _Vlad_ was dead.

Sam sat on the edge of the river, on a bench, curled up in a ball and hiding her face in her knees, shaking slightly all over again.

 _Dammit, Danny,_ she thought miserably. _I didn't even know you could do this to me. I didn't know I could feel this bad._

It wasn't like this all the time, not anymore, but sometimes…

And of course, it wasn't like it was a _mystery,_ what had happened to Vlad. Jazz had refused his offer, and less than a week later, his mansion had exploded. There was green goo everywhere, and hardly enough left of Vlad to scrape together a positive identification.

Apparently he'd started living for the two Fenton kids, and when they were gone, he'd decided what he'd been making do with before was no longer enough.

It fucking _figured._

"Who gave you the right?" she whispered to the air, angry tears stinging at her eyes.

"Dearie?"

Even entrenched in brooding as she was, Sam couldn't fail to recognize the Lunch Lady's voice. She turned her head away, fervently wishing that she would go away, but instead felt a cold hand on her shoulder and flinched away.

"Dearie, it'll be alright," the Lunch Lady murmured, voice uncharacteristically soft and understand, and Sam growled at her.

"No, it _won't,"_ she snapped harshly.

"Yes," the Lunch Lady contradicted firmly. "It _will."_

* * *

Clockwork examined the image in the mirror, adult face solemn and borderline regretful, as the Lunch Lady continued to speak to Sam until, abruptly, the girl started to cry, leaning into the green-skinned ghost lady, who patted her back comfortingly, looking a little sad herself.

Then he waved his staff, and the image changed. With new, old eyes in a wrinkled old face, he observed Amity Park in ten years.

In front of a crowd, Sam Manson's worried look changed to a triumphant, broad smile as she won the election for mayor, and thus the right to change the laws surrounding ghosts in the small town.

Tucker cheered for her and slung an arm around Dani to grin at her, and Dani rolled her eyes but smiled back, elbowing him in the ribs.

 _That could have been you,_ she said, though Clockwork couldn't hear her.

 _Nah,_ Tucker dismissed. _No one likes me that much._

 _That's why you keep getting promoted at work, because no one likes you._

 _I keep getting promoted at work because I know ghosts._

 _I know ghosts, no one promotes me._

 _You're a superhero! The city pays you! Superheros don't get promoted!_

 _That's discrimination!_

As their argument continued, Clockwork waved his staff again, causing the image to switch to a different place in the same time.

Jack and Maddie Fenton, faces worn with stress and age, leaned over a desk together, talking in low voices. Beside them, beautifully framed, was a picture of Danny Fenton, and then another of Danny Phantom, placed side by side.

 _We've almost got all the regulations changed, Mads,_ Jack said, with a weary smile that had become characteristic of him after his son's death.

 _Yes, we have,_ Maddie agreed, with a swift kiss on his cheek. _And then we can start making the Guys in White into a group that people will look to for help, instead of just one not to be scared of._

 _Yeah,_ Jack said softly.

Clockwork nodded to himself, and waved the staff one last time.

Jazz stood in front of her class, giving a lecture, eyes intent and focused. A tap of the keyboard changed the slide to a bright green ghost, and several students who had not been paying attention screamed, one falling out of her chair. She laughed, scolded them, and then apparently moved on, though the light of mischief lingered around her eyes.

He sighed, nodded, and then shut the screen down, turning away.

With a look far too old for the infant face he wore now, he said quietly, "Everything is as it should be."

Regret pulled at his chest anyway.

* * *

 **I have to admit, it's kinda funny how many of you wanted me to bring him back as a full ghost. *laugh* Sorry, but I've never been that kind of author - frankly, I'm kind of surprised Danny and Vlad are the only ones who died. (I've killed off most of the DGM main cast several times over.) Well, that's over and done with, thanks for reading, and please review!**


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